


hold on; don't let go

by pasdecoeur



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Genre: Drabble, F/F, Fix-It, Redeemed Catra
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-25 23:32:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16670485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pasdecoeur/pseuds/pasdecoeur
Summary: Girls save girls.She-Ra reaches across the boundaries of time and space and endless heartbreak, and saves She-Ra.





	hold on; don't let go

#####  _Now_

Adora fell out of the skiff, walked into the clearing, and touched the sword.

And the whole world went starkly, brilliantly _white._

* * *

 

 

#####  _Then_

She was blown out of her skimmer, and into the canopy of the Whispering Woods. The sky was grey, and the clouds danced with an unholy red fire, racing through the darkness like static electricity. She slammed hard against a knotted old branch, hanging on by her bloodied nails, throat dry from smoke, eyes red, mouth filled witht he taste of ash and copper.

“Ow, ow, mothereffin’ _ow._ ” She rubbed the back of her head gingerly, and began the slow descent to the ground. That was about when she heard it first, the sharp, quiet ring of sound, like a tine hitting the rim of a wineglass, persistent and high, cutting through her like knives.

“What the hell?” She twisted around the trunk of the oak, and saw the light, and leaped down, and walked into the clearing, and touched the sword.

Her name was Mara, and her world was already at war.

* * *

 

  


#####  _Now_

Thunder boomed somewhere high above, and Adora couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t open her eyes, a prisoner inside her own body.

 _‘Balance must be restored…’  
_ _‘Etheria must seek a hero…’_

A baby’s cry, a thousand screams, the crackle of a woodfire, and then.

**_‘What is it you need?’_ **

 

The voice came from far, far away, high-pitched and uneven, like a comm unit relaying from the heart of an electric storm.

 

_‘Adora…’_

**_‘What is your heart’s desire?’_ **

_‘Adora!’_

 

Adora tried to open her mouth, tried to suck in oxygen, mind spiralling, lungs contracting desperately, and the voice grew deeper, stronger, louder, till it was a great phycial thing, booming down on her like a hailstorm.

“ADORA!”

 

**_‘Do you know who you need?’_ **

 

Adora opened her eyes, and saw Catra.

* * *

 

 

#####  _Then_

“Light… Light Hope… Are you listening?”

Light flared from Mara’s sword, laced with darkness, but it coasted over her skin all the same, as familiar as a child’s blanket, and she let her eyes fall shut.

_‘I am listening, She-Ra.’_

“I fucked up, Hopey. I’m so goddamn sorry. I’m so…”

_‘You should not have trusted them. I warned you.’_

“They were my friends, Hope. If I do not fight for my friends, what’s the point of the bloody sword anyway?”

_‘You fight for all of Etheria. That is your duty. That is your purpose.’_

Mara tried to laugh, but there was too much blood in her lungs already, even with Light Hope blocking out her pain receptors, and what came out was a sort of wet, hacking cough. “You know, Hopey, you’re a really, _awesomely_ good butler, but with all your protocols and neural nets and machine learning systems, you never figured it out: Soldiers might go to war for their countries, and their flags, and their ideals, but when they fight…”

She paused to cough, retching blood and bile into Bright Moon’s muddied lakewater, while the battle raged rampant all around her.

“They fight for each other.”

_‘I… I see.’_

Mara smiled. Darkness was creeping on the edges of her vision now, and she stared into the war-torn sky of her beloved planet, and wished she could see blue skies one last time.

“No you don’t,” she murmured, weary and heartbroken and defeated. “You don’t. That’s why I have to make- make sure… that you don’t do to anyone else… what you did to me.”

_‘What I did to you?’_

“We all need love, Hopey. Even heroes. And no She-Ra will ever fight alone again.”

She cut her palm on the edge of the Sword, smearing the blood against the crystal in the hilt, and whispered, _‘For the honor of Grayskull,’_ one last time and let its hard, unforgiving gemstone facets make a prisoner of her soul.

* * *

 

 

#####  _Now_

Adora’s eyes flew open, heart thundering in her chest.

Catra blinked her eyes open slowly, curled up at the bottom of Adora's bed, a warm weight over icy feet, and her tail flicked idly under Adora’s chin. “Bad dream?”

Adora didn’t know how to reply, didn’t know what the dream _meant_ , felt the clarity of it bleed away as wakefulness came upon her.

“Oh no,” Catra was whispering, crawling over her, cupping her face is soft, sharp-tipped hands, bright, mismatched eyes widening in fear. “Oh man, you’re _totally_ brain-damaged.” A little fist tapped on Adora’s forehead. “You in there? Hey? Buddy? Know who I am?”

“ _Catra_.”

Catra grinned, and tweaked her ear, sitting back on her haunches--which put her… very firmly in Adora’s lap. Not that either of them noticed. “Well, hey there. What’s a girl like you doin’ in a place like this?”

“I’m going back for the sword.”

Catra stilled, the grin melting away, ice stealing over her sharp, quick eyes.

 _‘_ _Do you know who you need?’_ whispered the inhuman voice deep in her mind, but there was laughter there now, running along the edges. There was warmth and brightness, and the sharp-sweet lance of a sudden pain.

And the She-Ra replied, _‘I do.’_

 

Adora stuck out her hand. “Catra. Come with me. _Please_.”

So she did. And she never left.

**Author's Note:**

> AND THEY SEDUCED SCORPIA TO THE SIDE OF GOOD AND DEFEATED THE HORDE AND CATRA AND FROSTA WERE MURDER-BUDDIES AND ENTRAPTA NEVER FELT ANYTHING OTHER THAN ABSOLUTELY LOVED AND EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL AND NOTHING HURT THE END
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> find me on tumblr @pasdecoeur.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [When the Cat Tagged Along](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16766701) by [lionbornandbred](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionbornandbred/pseuds/lionbornandbred)




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